Hanson selectmen recall effort closing in on signature goal

Tuesday

Mar 11, 2014 at 9:04 PMMar 11, 2014 at 9:11 PM

An effort to recall two Hanson selectmen was prompted by a fight over a school building project.

Staff Reporter

HANSON – While Hanson’s $58 million elementary school project remains in limbo while waiting for a decision by state officials on whether to extend its funding deadline, opponents of the project are moving ahead with an effort to remove from office two officials who support the new school.Organizers of a recall against Board of Selectmen Chairman James Egan and Vice Chairman Stephen Amico collected 500 signatures in the first three days of their formal petition process toward a goal of about 700 signatures.

Separate petitions, one for each official, were circulated at the transfer station, post office and Shaw’s supermarket Friday and Saturday, recall organizer Mark Vess said. Both petitions had 500 signatures by Monday afternoon, he said.

“This is a very, very strong effort,” Vess said. “I am completely confident that (the requirement for) all three precincts will be met comfortably.”

Signatures from at least 10 percent of registered voters in each of Hanson’s three precincts must be certified for the recall to move forward. If organizers reach that goal within the 20-day window established by law, Egan and Amico will have five days to either step down from office or go ahead with a special recall election, which could be scheduled sometime after Hanson’s May 17 town election.

Vess, an opponent of the proposed new elementary school, is leading the effort to oust the town officials “for working to overturn the will of the people in a two-thirds majority vote in not one but two town meetings.”

Last month, the Whitman-Hanson Regional School Committee asked the state to extend its funding agreement for a combined building for students in kindergarten through fifth grade to replace the Maquan and Indian Head schools.

The request followed two special town meetings in October and January at which residents voted for the project, but by less than a two-thirds threshold.

Now town officials argue they only need a majority vote to approve the project. If the school was to move ahead, taxpayers in Hanson would likely pay $29 million, with the state picking up the rest of the cost.

Opponents say the associated property tax override would over-burden residents still stinging from the recession.

However, if the state denies a funding extension, the recall effort would still move ahead, Vess said.

“The injustice has already been served,” he said. “At this point, the recall has a life of its own. You can’t turn it off like a water faucet.”

Amico said Monday that he is preparing a response to the recall effort, but declined to specify what shape it will take. He added that the attacks against him and Egan are completely unfounded, especially considering the decision is in the hands of the state and then the regional school committee before it reaches the selectmen again.

“I still stick to my guns that everything that Mr. Vess has said is a total fabrication and untrue,” Amico said. “I’ve done nothing wrong. Mr. Egan has done nothing wrong.”